BARRACK TAKES THE STAND: "Tom Barrack testified that his support for longtime friend Donald Trump's presidency was 'disastrous' for him and his business, further suggesting it was the very reason he was on trial for allegedly acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates," Bloomberg's Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos report. — "The Colony Capital LLC founder, who took the stand Monday in his own defense in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, was asked by his lawyer about the assistance he gave Trump's campaign and administration. Barrack, 75, said he thought Trump was 'bold' and 'smart' but that he had thought his friend would become more 'moderate' and 'acceptable' in office." — "'I thought he would transition, but he had a style I and others didn't appreciate,' Barrack said, adding that Trump's divisiveness led to a 'death march' of investor exits at Colony. … His relationship with Trump was also why 'I'm sitting with you today,' Barrack told jurors." — "Barrack said he thought he could steer Trump's administration policy in the region in a more positive direction. 'I had this amazingly good businessman who could not spell "Middle East," nor did he have any interest in the Middle East,' he said. 'He was interested in Israel.' 'I thought this is my last chapter,' Barrack continued. 'If I could be some tiny prod in weaving that web of tolerance between these countries and America, I would be done. But none of that happened.'" — Before Barrack took the stand, Trump came to the defense of his inaugural committee chair in a post on his social platform Sunday night. Trump asserted Barrack is being "unfairly persecuted" because of their relationship and professed belief in Barrack's innocence, denying allegations that prosecutors had not made about Barrack. SCHMIDT STEERED FEDERAL AI RECOMMENDATIONS WHILE PRIVATELY INVESTING IN AI: At the same time Eric Schmidt was leading a federal advisory commission tasked with coming up with policy and national security recommendations on nearly every aspect of the emerging artificial intelligence sector — including drafting legislative language that later became law and steering "billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to industry he helped build," the former Google CEO "was actively investing" in the industry , CNBC's Eamon Javers reports. — "Five months after his appointment, Schmidt made a little-noticed private investment in an initial seed round of financing for a startup company called Beacon, which uses AI in the company's supply chain products for shippers who manage freight logistics, according to CNBC's review of investment information in database Crunchbase." — "There is no indication that Schmidt broke any ethics rules or did anything unlawful while chairing the commission." Still, while he was "wielding enormous influence over the future of federal AI policy, he was also potentially positioning himself to profit personally from the most promising young AI companies." — "Altogether, Schmidt and entities connected to him made more than 50 investments in AI companies while he was chairman of the federal commission on AI. Information on his investments isn't publicly available," though people close to Schmidt told CNBC "his investments were disclosed in a private filing to the U.S. government at the time." ABRAMS VOTING RIGHTS PUSH BENEFITTED AIDE'S LAW FIRM: "The voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams spent more than $25 million over two years on legal fees , mostly on a single case, with the largest amount going to the self-described boutique law firm of the candidate's campaign chairwoman," POLITICO's Brittany Gibson reports. — "Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Abrams' close friend who chaired her gubernatorial campaign both in 2018 and her current bid to unseat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp , is one of two named partners in Lawrence & Bundy, a small firm of fewer than two dozen attorneys. The firm received $9.4 million from Abrams' group, Fair Fight Action, in 2019 and 2020, the last years for which federal tax filings are available." — "Lawrence-Hardy declined to comment on how much her firm has collected from Fair Fight Action in 2021 and 2022 — years in which Fair Fight Action v. Raffensperger , for which Lawrence-Hardy was lead counsel, had most of its courtroom activity. Fair Fight Action has maintained that the suit — which ended last month when a federal judge ruled against the group on all three remaining claims — served an important role in drawing attention to voting inequities." — "But some outside the group questioned both the level of expenditures devoted to a single, largely unsuccessful legal action and the fact that such a large payout went to the firm of Abrams' close friend and campaign chair." NEVERMIND ON THAT NEVERMIND: After signaling to POLITICO earlier this month that he might be done shelling out on midterm races — irking some on the left — several crypto-financed super PACs funded in part by crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried are plotting six-figure ad campaigns in the final days of the election, CNBC's Brian Schwartz reports. — Web3 Forward and Crypto Innovation "plan to invest in TV ads supporting candidates from both sides of the aisle just days before the midterm Election Day, Nov. 8," according to one of the groups' chief strategists. "The PACs aim to initially air their aids in California, Oregon, Colorado and Texas, but are still assessing which candidates they will support. … Neither PAC has bought any campaign ads since September, when primary elections were coming to a close." — The groups are "funded primarily by the GMI PAC , another super PAC that has seen massive donations from cryptocurrency leaders. The contributions include $2 million in January from FTX CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried. The group also got $1 million each in May from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, two managing partners at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, records show. … Former Trump White House communications director and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci donated $100,000 to Crypto Innovation in March, according to an FEC filing." CORRECTION: Friday's edition of Influence has been updated to correct the ranking of the top 20 lobbying firms by third quarter revenue. PI regrets the error.
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